SciTech establishes a cohesive science and technology campus blending heritage with forward-thinking design.

The scheme brings together a new CLT and glulam-framed extension with the existing school buildings, organised around a central courtyard and cloister to create a cohesive campus setting. The Grade II listed 1934 Herbert Baker building has been carefully opened at its rear, establishing a strong axial connection between the cloister and the 1990s Design Technology building opposite. This intervention both reveals the SciTech facilities and unifies the historic and contemporary buildings into a single, legible campus.

The new development comprises a three-storey Teaching Building arranged as a linear block, alongside a two-storey Research Building that is already supporting a number of pioneering research initiatives, including the prestigious Stan-X project.

The teaching building adopts a hipped roof form, expressed internally through a series of pitched glulam beams spanning clearly at regular centres and restrained with stainless steel ties. The research building, connected via the cloister, is organised around a central spine wall that supports both the first floor and roof. A feature CLT stair rises from ground to first floor, framed and trimmed with glulam beams to celebrate the structure.

Above, the roof forms a truncated pyramid with a central butterfly roof. Glulam beams cantilever from the spine wall and are propped at each end by hip beams, transferring loads to a perimeter ring beam. The clarity and elegance of the connections between the hip members and the tension and compression rings were fundamental to achieving the architectural and structural intent.

Throughout Haileybury SciTech, the timber structure is left exposed, allowing the CLT slabs to perform both structurally and thermally while defining the character of the spaces. The use of CLT has also delivered significant environmental benefits, reducing embodied carbon by up to 56% per square metre when compared with conventional structural solutions.

Photography (c) Alan Bennett & BK Structures

Awards

Structural Timber Awards 2024 – Engineer of the Year